A Glint in the Snow
By Abby Ebon
Kurama had gotten Yuusuke, Kori, and Duo settled in a spare room they could recuperate in. Koenma had told the pilots that though he had saved Duo the Deathscyth pilot would still need rest, for shock; apparently coming back from the dead wasn't easy after all.
Kori was literally a 'bloody mess' but his healing abilities were predictably working to his advantage, but he had reverted to his cat form. So now they had a large tawny gold cat with sky-blue eyes on their hands instead of the Nekokikai's normal appearance.
"What do we feed him anyway?" Koenma wondered watching the tawny 'cat' warily. Quatre couldn't suppress a giggle.
"I'm sure he'll inform us if he gets hungry." Kurama said dryly, Kori-the-cat snorted in his 'sleep'.
The one that caused the most worry was Yuusuke, who was dozing but was pale and sweaty to the touch.
"Where is Hiei?" Trowa asked being his normal perspective self.
"He is interrogating Tsar." Kurama answered blandly watching over Yuusuke diligently.
"Alone?" Quatre asked looking a little pale. Kurama nodded, his focus on Yuusuke's condition, Kurama was the closest to a healer they had on hand- other then Kori, who was badly injured; Koenma wasn't so much a healer as a reviver of near dead, and obviously no one wanted Yuusuke to get that bad.
There was also a possibility that Koenma wouldn't be able to help Yuusuke, who had been revived from death before.
"Are you sure that is…wise?" Wufei asked looking doubtful. Kurama's green eyes caught and held Wufei's black ones.
"It is far better for Hiei to question him then for me to be alone with him." The words were slow and deliberate, Wufei found he couldn't look away until Kurama looked back to check Yuusuke's condition.
No one had anything to say to that.
Throughout this J and Heero had been conversing quietly in the far corner of the room; nearest to Duo. While the other pilots were curious they were also wary of the harsh gestures Heero made every so often.
"I'm telling you Heero, Deathscyth will be almost imposable to rebuild!" Doctor J, known as Jioden- Heero's biological father, shouted, being the first to lose his temper in the 'conversation'- that was more like an argument, with Heero.
J didn't know it but he had lost the argument and Heero knew it.
"It will be rebuilt." Heero said stubbornly, blue eyes narrowed at J. Doctor J grumbled, realizing he had lost, and left in a huff.
It was then that Kurama paused in taking Yuusuke's temperature, looked out the window and stiffened.
"What's wrong?" Quatre asked him worriedly, Kurama frowned.
"I believe we have visitors." Kurama whispered, but everyone could hear him in the cramped room.
"YUUSUKE!" It was the tell tale screech of Botan. It sounded so similar to Relena that Duo snapped awake with a panicked look on his face, and Heero stiffened.
Yuusuke who was half awake happened to see the two's reaction. He and Kurama got a laugh out of it. A harassed looking Doctor J entered, leading in a smug Botan and behind her were Jin, Touya, Kaitou, Kido, and Mitsunari.
The very late back up.
"Hey Botan, how'd you get here?" Yuusuke asked dozily, when she tried to approach him but Kurama blocked her way.
"He's been poisoned." Kurama told her bluntly, Botan scowled at Koenma blaming him for Yuusuke's injuries. Koenma didn't meet her eyes.
"I'm sorry I came too late Yuusuke; I brought what reinforcements I could find." Botan explained waving a hand at her group. Some of whom waved cheerfully at Yuusuke.
"It's alright Botan, we'll need help cleaning up around here." Yuusuke said softly, none of Botan's group looked too put out about being turned into a cleaning crew. After all, they knew all to well how much damage the battle had done, as they had after all seen it.
"Right, well boys come on lets go get a head start on that mess!" Botan said, her cheer somewhat dampened by Yuusuke's injuries.
Duo stared after them in astounded disbelief, his theory had just been proven true. In every world there was a Relena clone. Duo shook himself; if he was entirely truthful the blue haired woman wasn't that bad.
It was just…creepy. Seeing how much alike the two women- who had never met each other, acted. Heero looked, in his own unique and stoic way, grateful that Botan hadn't noticed him.
Kori-as-a-cat seemed to be snickering at the two pilots.
Duo scowled at him, having a very evil idea of 'giving' Kori-as-a-cat to Relena. Duo smirked at Kori, and Kori looked suddenly fearful for however many of his nine lives he had left.
The other pilots, save Quatre, decided to help out their 'backup' turned 'clean up crew'. Quatre had volunteered to keep Duo out of mischief, but the pilots suspected he was avoiding going to see Sandrock and Deathscyth.
Not that they blamed him, none of the pilots wanted to think to much on their reactions if their Gundams were totaled. Let alone how they felt about Sandrock and Deathscyth being near totaled- lets put it this way, if Rius wasn't completely dead, he'd be now a few times over.
Jin and Touya found it fascinating that Heero was a half demon- and Hiei's bother at that. Once Kaitou, Kido, and Mitsunari started talking to Wufei, as he was most 'approachable' he wasn't cold, and wasn't nearly-as-silent-as-death, but he was slightly grumpy but none of the three seemed to mind too much.
Duo was quite perturbed at being stuck in bed. Well, maybe not that so much as having to owe a debt to a toddler god. Kurama was still hovering over Yuusuke uneasily, and Kori didn't have vocal cords. Well cat-ones, but not specking-ones, at least he thought so -maybe Kori could speck as a cat-demon.
Stranger things had happened in his life.
Just as Duo was getting so bored as to count the cracks on the ceiling, or ask the dozing Quatre for a book, Hiei made his appearance and went strait to Kurama.
"Hiei what is it?" Kurama asked softly, Duo couldn't hear him- but he could read lips. Hiei passed a glass bottle to Kurama; Duo saw its contents were a putrid yellow, and decided it must be the poison from Tsar.
"Tsar's poison." Hiei answered curtly, Kurama nodded and Hiei left as Kurama began to analyze it.
It was fascinating watching the mix of emotions crossing Kurama's face as he worked with the vial of poison. Duo was no medical expert, but he did have basic medical training, so he knew that with snake venom you could get the anti-venom.
Maybe with demons it was the same thing, or maybe it was just with Tsar's people that it applied. Duo noticed Kori was also watching Kurama work, but neither of the two of them wanted to interrupt.
Yuusuke was still out; he had fallen asleep a little after Botan had left.
Duo knew why the other pilots had left, there was nothing they could do about him- he was tired; Kori was recovering; and Yuusuke had the only people who could help in this room.
The others couldn't do anything productive, and they were trained to react physically if a problem occurred. They couldn't do anything about Duo being exhausted, so they worked on their Gundams.
Duo had a feeling that Botan's people felt the same way, and Kurama and Quatre would be very likely shoo them out if they returned to just linger around Yuusuke. Quatre was staring at Tsar's poison; then looking to Yuusuke. He looked bewildered- or surprised, or some mixture of the two.
"Quatre, you alright man?" Duo asked softly so not to disturb Kurama; the blond and blue eyed pilot blinked and looked at Duo, confused, as if he hadn't heard Duo's question.
"Wha?" Quatre murmured to Duo.
"Are you alright?" Duo repeated watching for Quatre's reaction, he blinked at Duo then nodded.
"I'm fine." Quatre answered; in truth he wasn't, he could see golden cores of light in everyone human. Koenma's 'light' was blue; Kurama's and Hiei's whose were green and black respectively. Kori's was a mix of blue and silver- like his robes in human form.
It had all started when Hiei had entered the room and given Kurama the container of Tsar's poison- which radiated the same sickly yellow.
He swallowed when Kurama glanced at them when he heard them talking. Kurama's green eyes caught Quatre's blue ones and held them.
"Quatre come here would you?" Kurama asked, breaking the eye contact between them. Quatre glanced at Duo, who shrugged, and with that Quatre walked over to Kurama. He was working with some of the poison and suddenly jerked purposely throwing a drop toward Quatre.
The two pilots had seconds to react; it was all the time they needed.
Duo's ki flared and his spirit energy formed a scythe, long enough to reach Kurama- its edge was pressed to Kurama's neck. Quatre however had done something much more interesting. In his panic to keep the poison away from him he had grabbed it's 'light' and it had obeyed- stopped in midair.
Kurama smirked, and Duo bristled angrily; while Koenma stared calmly at the happenings before him.
"What the heck were you thinking?" Duo growled, he hadn't moved from lying down but his hand faced Kurama, in what could have been a hopeless gesture, but for the black scythe pulsing in his hand.
"He can see ki. The life force of all beings, more then that- he can control it, he can draw Tsar's poison- in a since his essence, from Yuusuke." Kurama explained; Quatre hadn't realized that he had 'ordered' the drop to go back to the others- but it had and Duo had watched it all wide eyed.
Duo lost concentration, the desperate need for a weapon was gone, and his scythe had disappeared.
"But why risk his life to prove that?" Duo demanded; Kurama looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
"In order to work Tsar's poison- his essence, would have to blend with another's- the only way for that to work is for it to mix with the others blood. Quatre wouldn't have been harmed." Kurama explained, Duo looked satisfied with the answer- but Quatre still stared at Yuusuke in a puzzled manner.
"What do you see?" Kurama asked Quatre, he looked up at him a small frown on his lips.
"Yuusuke's essence is a natural mix of gold and red-black, but the yellow is there too; it's Tsar's poison and it's killing him." Quatre answered softly; Kurama nodded sadly. While Duo looked upset- he had assumed poisoned meant he'd get better- Yuusuke didn't seem to be dieing.
"That's right Quatre. Because you can see it, you can draw it out. Normally I would, but Yuusuke has the bad habit of getting injured badly after I have depleted myself." Kurama told Quatre, who nodded, after stopping the poison midair he thought he could draw it out of Yuusuke.
Kurama placed his hands on Quatre's shoulders so he faced Yuusuke, and Quatre could see the poison pulsing through Yuusuke. It was seeping in-between his essence- the gold and red-black so they couldn't help each other and so acted independently. Both of Yuusuke's 'essences' were trying to take control of each other and the poison rendering Yuusuke helpless and dying internally.
Quatre could feel Yuusuke's essences crying out for help and he was drawn to do something to help his friend.
"Concentrate on pulling it out from one of Yuusuke's wounds." Kurama told him, which sounded safe to Quatre so he followed Kurama's advice and willed the poison to bleed out of Yuusuke.
It did so reluctantly, and in some cases Quatre had to peel it away from Yuusuke's essence. Then when there was no trace of the poison yet Yuusuke's two essences hadn't merged yet they were willing to obey Quatre when he weakly pulled them to join.
"Well done." Kurama murmured when Quatre came back to himself. The cut on Yuusuke's wrist which he had drawn the poison out of was festered and irritated, but no poison was in the wound.
There was a large jug beside Yuusuke's bed, under his wrist and it was full of the sickly yellow tainted with Yuusuke's blood. To Quatre's surprise Yuusuke was awake- when Quatre looked up Yuusuke was grinning at him.
"Thanks Quatre." Yuusuke's voice was horse and Quatre only nodded smiling.
"Anytime, Yuusuke." He answered softly, a slightly embarrassed blush spreading across Quatre's face.
"I think your friends have a surprise for you." Yuusuke murmured softly, closing his eyes to rest. Quatre turned and was surprised to see Duo specking excitedly, about what Quatre had done, with Trowa and Heero. The strangers Botan had brought surrounded an amused Wufei.
Trowa saw that he was finished and discreetly went to him, checking to see if he was alright before glaring at Kurama. Apparently Duo hadn't left anything out – and Trowa wasn't likely to forgive Kurama anytime soon.
"Come on guys; let's scram before Kurama throws us out for disturbing Yuusuke's rest." Duo urged them amused, the other pilots and Wufei's new friends had little choice but to follow the braided pilot out.
When they got outside the five newcomers were treated to a rare sight. Duo speechless and Quatre with his mouth hanging open with an unspoken 'oh' of surprise. J smirked triumphantly in front of the newly repaired Deathscythe and Sandrock.
Trowa and Heero traded amused glances and Wufei was snickering. The boys Botan had brought along all had grins on their faces.
"How?" Predictably Duo was the first to recover, Trowa shook his head. "You don't want to know."
And that was all that as ever said about Duo's and Quatre's Gundam's being repaired from the battle with Rius.